Synopsis

In the 21st century, mankind lives on two worlds. Following the collision of an ice asteroid, massive terraforming has made Venus a planet now capable of supporting life. Colonists from Earth tamed the hostile world and have thrived for four generations. But they also brought the darker side of humanity. Venus is about to get hostile again.

Hiro Seno, a hotshot motorcycle jockey, witnesses the first strike against his country Aphrodia, by the rival nation of Ishtar. Huge battletanks and warplanes quickly lay waste to the city. The Aphrodian army is quick to mobilize and retaliate... and despite his opposition to warfare, Hiro finds himself fighting for his life on the front lines.

Venus wars is to me a classic, Its not very very good but I watched it many years ago and by the standart back then it was quite good.
Probably not the best choice for younger fans who cant stomach the outdated animation but it is a fine example of 80's sci fi anime.

Its a decent quick watch, and a peek into the 80's, the golden era of anime, and by this I mean it's better than 90% of modern animes easily...

I don't usually do review but after seeing this movie I had to, because I can't really recommend this to anyone.

Basically the story is very ordinary! I have seen many movies from late 80s that are written in same way and this also borrows many elements. I felt that this movie was re-written less bloody version of Akira. These two movies have many things in common!

And the characters are forgettable. I didn't even remember anyone's names.

Only one thing that is good in this anime is its artwork. I really liked how the tanks and other vehicles were drawn.

Overall an unfinished anime, which
needed deeper more complex story and better written characters.

If you want a gritty war anime full of tanks, look no further! This sci fi ova embodies the charm of 80s anime; though very flawed, the aesthetics and love put into its making is enough for an enjoyable watch.

The premise is sound if not a bit basic. Humans have colonised Venus (out of all the planets in Sol) but thanks to ecological disasters, it is a backwater hellhole far from the supposed utopia of this world's Earth. Its people have a reckless, fatalistic and at times apathetic view towards life and peace (the ridiculously deadly bike racing games they have!). The nation Ishtar launches
a surprise attack on Aphrodian's capital, Io and conquer it in one day. The anime then chronicles a bike racing gang's involvement in the war to recapture Io. The simple plot is made up for by a sense of scale. There is a huge array of futuristic armoured fighting vehicles with the combined arms firepower that lays waste to the massive industrial complex of Io. Rarely in anime will you see such gratuitous scenes of warfare! There is more attention to detail than you'd think. The only aircraft are all prop driven as jet aircraft do not work in Venuses' atmosphere.
At the same time, while one and a half hours is enough to craft a rich geopolitical thriller and a dose of history on top of the basic story, we only get a couple of basic anti war and totalitarian messages. The government is pretty corrupt and incompetent; that's always fun!
Instead, the runtime focuses on the biker gang. While there is no problems with good character development, this IS NOT done well. A lot of the dialogue IS unnatural as hell, their interactions do not reveal as much about themselves and the world around them as it could have and a lot of the movie seriously lacks a sense of direction. The beginning could have been condensed to half the amount of time without much difference. Definitely the weakest aspect of the anime!

The characters are decent to poor. Most of the biker gang are the standard kids transitioning to adults type characters. There is no development for most of them save the main character and the alpha male and even then it is poor. It is quite probable that you'd make no real emotional connection to any of them! This is nothing compared to the reporter character; she takes the blondes are dumb stereotype to the max and is easily the dumbest character in anime I've ever seen. She contributes almost nothing to the anime and her only redeeming feature is that she has more balls (or is it ignorance?) than most of the male cast! Literally just a dumb pretty face.

Art quality is typical 80s ova type stuff; brilliant if you are used to old anime. What really boosts this anime are the insanely over the top and extremely cool military weapon designs. The giant tanks bristle with cannons that cover all of its sides! It is absolutely ridiculous and the anime knows it. They often operate alone as assault weapons; presumably because their all round fire power is expected to cover every possible approach to the tank. In practice, there are only 3 or so crewmembers operating the tank; so in battle, half of the guns are never used! Those monowheel motorbikes are also so impractically dumb that they end up becoming cool. You know what else is dumb? That experimental section of the movie where they animated motorbikes on top of live action video footage. Interesting? Yes. Well done? No, very roughly! Its more jarring than bad anime cgi!

Sound is your typical 80s music. Its slightly above average compared to other 80s anime osts.

Yes I really enjoyed this, you don't watch this anime for the lame, unrealistic characters and the barebones plot. You watch this for the badass mechanical designs waging blitzkrieg war over desert wastes and wreaking total destruction of the intricately detailed cities of Venus. What makes this even more interesting is the asymmetrical forces of the two nations. The Ishtarians have massive tank armies while Aphrodian's prefer hard hitting mobile forces. In conclusion, this is one of the coolest war animes ever made! Recommended for fans of military sci fi, the junkyard future aesthetic and war anime in general.

Original Tape version 9, Remastered 16:9 widescreen edition dvd, 5,5 at best because it rapes the texture and recording of its time, while it shows too much at the colors and stuff. Original i like it best because i saw it the 1st time on t.v back in 1994,95, and its just sooo enjoyable that way, the music tracks, the grainy resolution, sigaretburns inscreen and the shady yet movable animation thats NOT like static body movement on the remaster! A good movie in the HEYDAYS of sci-fi and cyberpunk anime that had an nice storyline to it and good fitting chara. that are involved the
whole millitary wars thing! ok weapons design, more beautyful mortorcycle and vehicledesigns wich in 1 scene come's to and good chase!
really, some anime's shoul'nd be remastered unless its really a priority